War for the Planet of the Apes` biggest conflict isn`t the one you expect from the title. Sure, it`s full of large-scale battles between human armies and apes, and there`s plenty of action and intense gunfights. But the real war in the latest Planet of the Apes film is over what kind of movie it wants to be.Despite starting and ending as a standard `war` film, complete with slow-motion explosion montages, characters scrambling to safety through dirt trenches, and people hunkering behind cover as bullets fly around them, War for the Planet of the Apes spends most of its runtime as an old-fashioned Western. And despite the surprising shift in tone when Caesar (played by Andy Serkis and an army of CGI engineers) mounts up on horseback away from the large-scale combat and into a completely different genre, it actually works.Unlike the previous Apes films where humans and apes alternated in the spotlight, Caesar drives the entire narrative this time around. His brooding, Clint Eastwood demeanor and the film`s purposeful pacing generate a slow and steady burn that`s only broken by scattered gunfire and breakneck horse chases. And even with a preponderance of ape-focused exposition, it`s still effective because the movie makes you believe that the talking and acting apes you see on screen are real-life creatures. Whether they`re conversing in sign language or Caesar`s rough speech, War for the Planet of the Apes quickly erases the ineffective opening war and draws you into a world of convincing, empathetic characters on a cowboy-like tale of bloody vengeance.But War of the Planet of the Apes also does this so well because it is, once again, a technical masterpiece; the line between practical effects and CGI isn`t just blurred, it`s erased. When the camera focuses on Caesar`s eyes as he talks about his loss or tries to understand his world, you stop looking for the little tells, the surefire giveaways that these are just special effects. Instead, you feel like you`re lo ...
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